Wednesday 12 July 2017

Beddington Farm - Shorebirds on the Move!


This morning I headed over to the Farm to see if the rain had dropped any new shorebirds in. I bumped into Pete Alfrey as I was parking up and a plan to meet up on 100 Acre was hatched. The water levels had risen quite considerably making 100 Acre the most likely area for new arrivals.

I met Pete at the gates and the search began. This was going to be a careful investigation with all likely beds to be covered. The species that became the bookies favourite was Black-tailed Godwit with Pete particularly on the look-out for young Yellow-legged Gull that move at this time of the year.
It did not take long to find a juvenile Yellow-legged on Jim’s bed. I must confess I would probably of overlooked this bird but eagle eyed Pinpoint was on it straight away. There were a few shorebirds on the small pit which included an adult and a juvenile Little Ringed Plover which were surprisingly quite approachable as they scurried about on the mud.
Green Sandpiper was also present with a final tally of eight birds in this area. This species numbers tend to build up at this time of the year as birds stay to moult before moving on. Numbers in the past have reached the late forties and of course with that there is a chance of a Wood Sandpiper as well.
With 100 Acre completely covered we moved on to the Lakes where a Common Sandpiper was busily feeding away on one of the few places that still had some exposed mud.
The bookies favourite did not come in on this occasion but I wonder if that was down to the rise in water levels. A bit of gull training which was an un-expected bonus for the morning. See http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.co.uk/ for more gen on gull identification. Cheers Pete!

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